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[433] Join κατὰ with λαβών. ‘Having grasped his back, I lay curled up under his shaggy belly.’ The Schol. interprets ἐλυσθείς by “συστραφείς”. We find in Il.23. 393“ῥυμὸς δ᾽ ἐπὶ γαῖαν ἐλύσθη”, where Schol. B. interprets by “συνερύη”. In Il.24. 510“προπάροιθε ποδῶν Ἀχιλῆος ἐλυσθείς” is rendered by the same Schol. “συνειλυθεὶς ἢ κυλισθείς”. It must be noticed that κείμην is an unusual word to express ‘suspension.’ But, after all, the posture is rightly described by “κεῖσθαι”, as Odysseus is outstretched back downwards. Nor is the impossibility of holding on all night to the sheep's wool to be considered for an instant. It is only the same scene that appears in the ‘Romans de Dolopathos’ (see Appendix 3), where the robber holds on to the hen-perch for a day and a night while the blinded giant is laying about him with his club. Otherwise we should have to accept the tame interpretation, that Odysseus lay nestling at the ram's side, while the creature slept—his hands interlaced in the fleece—and that when the ram rose to go out, he lifted Odysseus with him.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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